2018 Q1 Summary
The current market is relatively uneventful. There’s no hard trend currently apparent. Beginning of year hiring is underway, but the strength of demand varies from bank to bank. Credit Suisse has been shedding NYC jobs liberally as positions are relocated to lower cost regions, and BofA has tightened budgets. Overall, layoffs generally are down, but Deutsche Bank continues to do its part. Morgan Stanley has followed strong performance with robust hiring, and Goldman has made is clear that hiring in their Strats group is a top priority.
Buy Side firms continue to hire top notch technical talent at premium prices. The competition is clearly from large, public technology firms that can peel off a few more shares and make a young programmer very comfortable in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
One interesting development is that we currently have more Lead/Management roles than we’ve had in the past. These roles continue to have a focus on hands-on skills.
The New Salary History Law
I commented in my last report that the new salary law, “is going to make my job harder.” The reality? Not at all. It’s refreshing to talk compensation w/o relying on a person’s history, and firms have a clear idea of what they want to pay a given individual. So far, so good.
Demand for infrastructure developers
We continue to see very strong demand for infrastructure developers. Our top hedge fund clients are paying a significant premium (call me) for the best developers. Financial knowledge? Useful, but firms are generally not willing to pay a lot for knowledge they expect someone can learn on the job. As for technical skill, the fact of the matter is that nobody believes that you can turn a good developer into a great developer, so the search for amazing developers continues apace.
Slow Contract Market
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the contract market is currently tepid. A number of contractors we work with have reported that they’re not seeing a lot of opportunities.
Buzzwords: Blockchain, ML, NLP
Blockchain technology seems to be permeating everything these days, even recruitment. The NY Times published a great article in January describing the technology and its potential to have a broad and fundamental impact. I particularly like the description, “network of distributed trust” as a succinct and accurate description of the technology. Worth a read.
Machine Learning is everywhere these days, and we’re beginning to see opportunities in this and other AI disciplines. We’re currently working on a position in Morgan Stanley’s Machine Learning group which applies AI and NLP technologies to revenue generating business cases.
More on Resumes
This is always a sore point for me, as I see so many bad resumes (this section was originally titled, “Your resume sucks”). A resume will never be proof that you are the right person for the job, but it can be proof positive all too easily that you aren’t the right person. Make sure to keep the reader’s perspective in mind and be sure that someone else has read it for content and grammar.
Opportunities
Please follow AffinityFin to be apprised of new opportunities. Of course, the best way to learn about available opportunities is to email or call me directly.
Referrals
We have a referral program. If you refer someone who we place, we will gladly reward you for the referral.
Current Priorities
Buy Side
- Senior Java Developer – real-time PnL
- Junior Python Developer – research platform - new hedge fund within leading asset management firm
- C# and/or Java Developer – Contract/FTE – Risk attribution
- Junior-Mid C++ Developer – various functions
- Junior-Mid Java Developer – various functions
- Python Developer/Data Architect – Greenwich, CT
- C# UI Developer – Greenwich, CT
- C++/Python developer – algo trading infrastructure
- Python/Java/C++ Developer – Research
- Java Developer – Post Trade
- Python Developer – Data platform
- Java Developer – Core infrastructure services/libraries
- Quant Dev C++ - junior/mid/senior
- Java Developer – credit trading startup
- Portfolio Researcher - credit trading startup
- Javascript Developer – algo trading
- Python Systems Developer – Cloud based grid compute
- Python/Java Data Engineer – algo hedge fund
- Python Quant/Dev – algo hedge fund
- Real-time Java Developer – algo hedge fund
Sell Side
- NLP Engineer – Team lead
- Commercial SPG Desk Quant – focus on generating trade ideas
- Commercial Credit Desk Quant – focus on generating trade ideas
- Treasury Desk Strat
- Fixed Income Strats Developer –Java/Scala/Python/KDB/JavaScript – reports to the Desk
- Fixed Income Strats – Data Lead (ED) – oversee the data requirements of fixed income strats team globally
- Fixed Income Strats Hands-on Dev Manager (ED) – Lead a large group of developers supporting the trading desk
- JavaScript/AngularJS – full-time and contract
- Java/Scala Developer – Risk - Credit Trading IT/IRD IT
- Java Developer - Market Data - Credit Trading IT
- Java/Scala Developer – Valuation and Risk Infrastructure
- Java Developer – Secured Lending
- Java/Javascript Developer – Credit Risk C# Developer – Loans and Distressed Debt - Credit Trading IT
- KDB Quant/Dev – Fixed Income Strats
- DB2 Database Architect – CVA IT
- C++ Project Lead – CVA IT
- C++ Developer – IRD IT
Other Side
- Javascript/React Developer – Web dev Tools - Major Credit Card Company
- Javascript Developer – Trading Systems – Leading financial data platform
Contract
We always have a wide array of contract opportunities at good rates:
- Java
- Scala
- C#
- Javascript – Angular, React
- C++
- KDB
- Database – DB2